Can you also share the good news with random people?

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Can you also share the good news with random people?

by astro

Is it possible to share with someone, randomly, on the streets there? What does it look like?

The answer to the first question is YES and YES. And the answer to the second question is: it's different all the time. Just like God creates every snowflake or fingerprint uniquely, every opportunity to confess him and share is word is a unique gift from him.
Here’s something that happened recently…

Img 2165I’d spent most of the night outside talking with people and decided to stop by one more neighborhood before heading home. I sat down on a bench beside two guys chatting away. They were talking about the nastiness of prostitution happening in the neighborhood, and were lamenting over the state of the world. They were happy to include me, a total stranger in their chatter, and we talked about life, about good stuff and bad stuff, and joked around a little. When our beliefs came up, I started to say that I believed God laid out a path of salvation for us. He interrupted me and said, "Yes, I'll tell you what that is," he continued with a friendly confidence. "There are two roads in life. You can do good or you can do bad. If you go down the bad path and do bad, you become a slave to evil. If you go down the good path and do good things, you become a slave to good. You're either a slave to God or a slave to the devil. It's that simple."


I smiled at his good summary, marveled at how he’d been able to understand so much, and thanked God for the opportunity to share His good news. “Exactly.” I said, “I totally agree.” “But if someone’s a slave to something, does he really have the power to set himself free?” “No.” He said. “He needs someone stronger than them to come and pay a ransom and set them free, right?” “Absolutely.” “Well if we’re a slave to evil, we're in the exact same situation.” “Yep.” He agreed. “That's why Jesus, when he walked this earth, said 'I came to give my life as a ransom.' He gave his life to free us.” We talked for a while and I tried to explain how Jesus really did give himself and die, and how he rose from the dead and set us free from slavery to evil. (Most people believe that he didn’t die, and that if he did it would be pointless and shameful.) 

In that dark corner of the city, late at night, those two guys who I just met and will probably never see again got to hear for the first time that Jesus really did die to set them free from evil. They may have been surprised or confused, or maybe deeply touched. Whatever the case, Christ's work was exposed and God was honoured there on that park bench. And those seeds of his word went into different cracks of the city. I could go home and sleep well, feeling satisfied that I had worked for His honour that day, and that He had let me see a precious opportunity to get his word out. Talking with those guys was like eating a big chunk of tasty manna, sent right down from heaven. 

Do you feel called to spend your evenings, weeks, and years getting to those dark places, and taking opportunities to confess him?? We need more people to sit on benches with these guys and let them hear for the very first time. Jesus gave his up his life to pull us and many others from the nations out of slavery to evil. We need lots more young people to give up their lives and careers for him!